Behind the Façades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…

Sunday, September 30, 2012

That'll Work: French Economics Minister Invokes Keynes to Get France Out of Economic Crisis

Plantu on "Words in the whirlwind":
And the minister issued these immortal words to a subdued citizenry:
• Pierre Moscovici: The way out of the debt will be competetive and Keynesian at the same time!

In an interview with Le Monde's Claire Guélaud, Arnaud Leparmentier, and Caroline Monnot, you (and the French people) will be happy to learn that France's economics minister is invoking John Maynard Keynes, as part of the key out of the economic crisis — by a "rigorous" effort bringing the debt from 4.5% of PIB down to 3%, albeit not by reducing public spending, but by raising taxes. This prompts Erik Izraelewicz to issue a warning through a Le Monde editorial that "These raises risk becoming a major brake on investment". Indeed, the reference to Keynes duly seems to shock even Le Monde's reporters, as well as Plantu, however, Pierre Moscovici is careful to point out that his socialist government will not be returning to an "outdatedKeynesianism" (emphasis mine) — whatever that is supposed to mean.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Belgium, a government which is depicted as "being inspired by what is occuring in Paris" is being accused of acting like Marxists, writes Jean-Pierre Stroobants, with a Flemish CEO accusing Elio Di Rupo's Walloon socialists of taking the country "on the path to a neo-communist society."